Saudi Arabia and 9/11 Victim Families Bill

September 2016 UPDATE:

The bill to enable families of victims of the September 11th attacks to sue Saudi Arabia was unanimously passed by both the House and Senate; however, former President Obama, who was strongly opposed to the legislation, known as the "Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act", has vetoed the bill.

U.S. congress is currently considering legislation what would allow families of victims of the September 11th attacks and other terrorist attacks to be able to sue Saudi Arabia as well as other nations.

Saudi Arabia has been the US’s longtime strategic ally in the Middle East. But now, the country’s alleged linking with the al-Qaeda terrorists that carried out the attacks on New York and Washington is bringing a lot of attention to the public and the media.

On his visit last March to D.C., Saudi Arabian foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir warned U.S. lawmakers that the Saudis have threatened to sell off $750 billion of American assets they hold if the bill is passed by Congress.

Victims feel that they have received no justice. 19 hijackers that killed over 3,000 people and injured 6,000 during the September 11th attacks. 13 of the 19 terrorists were Saudi nationals.

Bob Graham, former U.S. Senator and Florida Governor, was the chair of the US Senate Intelligence Committee and co-chair of the Congressional Inquiry into 9/11, has publicly stated there is a connection between the attacks and Saudi Arabia.

During a Sirius XM Radio interview, Graham said, “I think the evidence that at least some of the hijackers received financial and other support from agents of Saudi Arabia is incontrovertible. My own suspicion is that when those materials are released it’s going to be found that there was a network of support for the 19 hijackers, which allowed this group of men, most of whom didn’t speak English, most of whom had never been in the United States and many of whom had very limited education, to carry out the complicated plot that they did on 9/11.”

Graham cannot give details because the report is classified, but President Obama promised to the families of 9/11 victims that the report will be released. The report is said to tie Saudi government agent Omar al-Bayoumi to hijackers Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi.

Recently, Rudi Giuliani demanded that the report be revealed. Giuliani was mayor of New York during the attacks. He claims that a Saudi prince gave him a check for $10 million in an effort to convince him to deflect attention away from Saudi Arabia. Giuliani tore up the check and returned it to the Prince. He recently stated, “His money he can keep and go burn it in hell. The American people need to know exactly what was the role of the Saudi Arabia government in the attacks: we are entitled to know who killed our loved ones and who almost killed us all.”

If President Obama does not release the report, we are hopeful that Hillary Clinton, whom we believe will be our next president, will do so when she takes office.